


Both of Us

by onceupon_ahappyending



Category: Once Upon a Time (TV)
Genre: Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Episode: s02e06 Tallahassee, F/M, Family, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, OC, One Shot Collection, Original Characters - Freeform, Originally Posted on FanFiction.Net, Romance, Sickfic, Swanfire - Freeform, Tallahassee AU
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-02-24
Updated: 2019-09-01
Packaged: 2019-11-04 19:14:29
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 20
Words: 19,499
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17903933
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/onceupon_ahappyending/pseuds/onceupon_ahappyending
Summary: Cute little collection of one-shots





	1. good moments

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> David drops Emma off for her date with Neal

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I'm used to updating this on FF.net, so I might forget some chapters- also, this is starting from very close to where I am on FF.net, which is chapter 100+, so if you want more, just check there (you can access it on my Tumblr - onceuponahappyending)

"Dad, please don't walk me in," Emma begs, looking over at her father who just smiles and unbuckles his seatbelt. "Dad, no!" he laughs as she reaches over and starts grabbing for his seatbelt, trying to put it back on him.

He manages to get his arm around her and mess up her hair before letting her go. "Relax, I'm not walking you in," he tells her, reaching behind him to reach his seatbelt. "I'll spare you that embarrassment for another time," he promises, receiving a glare from Emma in return.

He chuckles and reaches over, kissing her forehead. "You have fun, okay? Stop worrying," he says, putting his hand on the side of her face.

"I'll try," she mumbles, unbuckling herself and opening the door to the car. "You'll text me if Henry comes home while I'm gone?" she asks, holding the door open.

He sighs, looking back over at her. "That's worrying, Emma," he states, looking over at her as she stomps and rolls her eyes, still waiting for the answer she wants to hear. "Yes, if Henry comes back home I will text you, now go and have fun," he stresses and she nods, closing the door and stepping back to watch him drive off before going inside the diner.

She looks around, for a second thinking that he wasn't there, only to find him just as she's thinking of going back. She walks over to the table, sliding into the seat across from him while he's looking out the window. "Hey," she calls and he looks over at her, smiling.

"Hey! I didn't expect you to show up," he states, watching as she shrugged her jacket off.

She looks at the table, sighing deeply. "I'm not sure I expected me to show up, either," she chuckles and he just smiles that sad smile that he's famous for and looks down at the table and start drawing shapes on it with his fingers.

It doesn't take her too long to realize what she's just said and she reaches across the table and takes his hand. He freezes and looks up at her, clearly nervous, which breaks her heart but it helps to know that he's just as anxious as she is.

They don't say anything for a long minute- neither of them knows what to say and ruining this moment would be doing a lot more than ruining just this moment.

After enough time has passed, Emma takes her hand back and looks away from him, smiling a reserved, walls-up kind of smile and he looks at her in a way that she doesn't feel like she should be being looked at by anyone- in a way that tells her 'I'm sorry and I love you'.

"Um-" "Emma-." They both let out nervous laughs, looking down at the table. Emma looks up at him, throwing her hand up in a gesture to let him know that he can go. "I didn't know what I was going to say, anyway," she laughs.

He smiles and chuckles at her, closing his eyes. "I just wanted to say that I'm happy you decided to come."

She smiles a real, less reserved smile. "Me too."


	2. we take care of each other

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Neal taking care of Emma when she's sick

"Hey, Em!" Neal lets himself in, having received a text from Snow earlier that she'd left the door unlocked in case he wanted to stop by that morning. He hangs his coat up and puts his keys on the counter before going to grab a spoon and running upstairs.

He knocks on the door to her room before letting himself in. "Hey," he mumbles, going to sit beside her. "I brought you some soup, it's from Granny," he makes sure to talk in a whisper, not wanting to give her a worse headache than she has.

She sits up slowly, with some assistance. "Thanks," her voice is raspy and quiet and he winces right as she does.

"Are you feeling any better?" he hands her the container of soup and she smiles as it warms her hands.

She nods, "My throat still hurts, and I have a killer headache, but I'll take that over puking," she swallows a spoonful of soup before looking up at him, "you don't have to work today?"

He shakes his head, leaning back in the chair that he'd pulled over to the bed. "I went in this morning to help your dad out with the paperwork, but he said he'd cover it for the rest of the day. I didn't want you to be at home all day by yourself again if you have been all week."

She grins, "I think you just missed me."

He chuckles, nodding and looking down, "That, too," he chuckles, "It's not any fun without your constant complaining."

She gives him a look and he knows that if she had the energy she'd reach over and punch his arm, "Well, I'd pretty much rather be doing anything than laying here all day," she complains.

He raises his eyebrows, "Even paperwork?"

She nods, sniffling a little bit, "Even paperwork." he looks at her sadly, reaching out and squeezing her hand.

She smiles at him, looking down at the blanket. "Well, hopefully, you'll feel better soon and you'll be able to come back," he suggests and she nods, taking another spoonful of soup.

She waits until she swallows before she shrugs. "I think so. It's just odd because I don't feel that bad right now, you know? Like, if I hadn't been sick earlier and if I didn't feel like I haven't slept in ages, I would be there," she shakes her head and sighs, taking another bite of soup.

He tilts his head to the side and bites his lip. "I- uh, Em, I think just having the headache and sore throat is being pretty sick, but being dead out of energy, too? I think you're right to stay home for a bit longer," she shakes her head, looking down.

There are a few moments of silence and she shrugs, "But I'm bored," she pauses, "and I miss you," she mumbles, looking to see his reaction.

He smiles his sad, sad smile and takes her hand. "I know, I miss you, too," he watches as she smiles and lets out a soft chuckle. "But you need to get better," she frowns, looking down at the blankets again.

"I'll come to see you, if you want," he suggests.

Her head snaps up and she smiles extra wide. "Really?"

He nods, squeezing her hand, "Of course, really! I'll come by every day, if you want," he promises and she smiles as wide as she can at that moment.

"I'd like that," she reaches out for him, this time, waiting for him to take her hand. "Maybe one day we could even go downstairs," she chuckles.

He rolls his eyes and smiles at her, reaching over to smack (more like brush his hand against) her shoulder. "Eat your soup," she sighs and takes her hand back.

After having finished as much as she thought she'd be able to keep down, he runs downstairs to put the container in the fridge and then goes right back upstairs.

It's then when he notices the state that she's in, with her hair unbrushed, probably in clothes she's been wearing since she first got sick, and the red circles around her eyes. "You wanna shower? I can help," he offers.

She hesitates, looking down at the blanket. "I'm not exactly in walking condition right now, Neal," she jokes and he shrugs, walking up next to the bed.

"We can go slow. I can carry you if you need me to," he suggests and she shakes her head but doesn't move to get up. "I swear to god, I won't do anything to help if you don't want me to, I just thought maybe you could use it," he suggests.

She nods, still avoiding eye contact. "No, I know. I just- I'm a mess, right now, I don't really know if I can stay upright long enough to wash my hair, and-" he cuts her off.

"If you're having problems standing, we can bring a chair in there, or you could take a bath, or I could help you," he lists.

She nods, looking down at the ground. "Okay, we can try," she whispers, still unsure, but a bit more confident.

He walks over and sits beside her. "If you don't want to, you do not have to, Em. Look at me," he tilts his head to the side to make eye contact with her. "You don't have to."

She furrows her eyebrows, shaking her head. "I'm just afraid I'll fall and get hurt," she mumbles.

He nods and reaches out to take her hands, "If you feel like you're going to fall, you call me and I'll catch you, okay?" she nods and pulls the blanket back, about to try to get up. "Wait, wait. I'll get your clothes for you, just tell me what you wanna wear," he tells her, walking over to the dresser.

She nods, her eyebrows going down in confusion. "Um- well, there's a grey, fuzzy sweater in there- you'll know it when you see it, it's really fuzzy," she describes and he smiles, pulling a shirt out. "That one, yeah," she mumbles, starting to feel a bit loopy. "And then, leggings are in the bottom drawer, and everything else is in the second one."

He nods, grabbing everything else out before walking over to the bathroom to put the clothes on the counter before coming back to help her up. "Okay, you got it?" he asks, holding both of her hands as she stands up, trying to steady herself, but starting to fall.

He reaches over, grabbing her under the arms and standing her up, "Okay, just hold onto my shoulders," she nods and reaches her hands up, holding herself still. "Awesome! Okay, let's just go slowly, 'kay? We don't have to rush," he whispers, starting to step back as she goes forward.

In seconds, he's tripped three times and she's laughing at him, trying to stay upright as she does so. He reaches down and puts his hands on her waist, trying to help her stay steady. "Okay, I can't see where I'm going, so, I'll be your balance, but you've gotta be my eyes," he states and she nods, looking over his shoulder.

They make it to the bathroom, only tripping a few times each, and he turns on the water, helping her get undressed and into the shower as best he can with his eyes closed, as per their agreement.

Minutes go by and they're only talking a bit, Emma trying to focus on staying upright and washing her hair more than conversing. There are a few moments of silence before Neal hears her call his name. "Yeah?"

"I'm gonna fall," he moves forward as fast as he can and helps her steady herself before she's able to land on the ground.

He sighs, holding onto her waist with one hand and putting his hand against his forehead in relief. "Are you almost done washing your hair?" he asks and she nods, but his eyes are closed and he can't see it. "Emma?" he prods.

"Oh, right. Yeah, I'm done," he reaches over and feels for the handle to turn the water off before grabbing a towel. He holds it, his arms outstretched and she chuckles lightly before stepping into them, allowing him to wrap her up in it.

It takes her a while to dry off by just standing, but after a while, it's enough and he stands, letting her hold onto his shoulders to balance and waiting to catch her if she starts to fall. She doesn't turn out to need it, but the second he opens the bathroom door, it's flooded with cold air and she starts visibly shaking.

He reaches out, suggesting that he helps her walk out like last time, and she takes his hands, accepting the challenge. After a few seconds of trying to walk while dizzy enough as it is, but also shivering, she straight up starts to collapse.

"Okay, I know. I know that you're stubborn as all get out, and I know that this sucks for you way more than you're gonna let on, but you can't walk and I have to carry you," he explains, catching her on her way down and putting his arm under her legs to carry her the rest of the way.

They make it to the bed and once they get there, she sighs in frustration. "What?" he asks, setting her down.

"I don't like this. I want to go back to work and I want to feel better," she mumbles, her chin wavering and he sits on the side of the bed right next to her, reaching forwards to hug her.

He runs his fingers through her hair, brushing it out gently. "I know you do, and you will soon, but for now you need rest."

She nods, putting her face against his neck. "I know. I will," she leans back and wipes her eyes so that they're free of tears. "Can you help me wash the sheets later? I don't like how they feel after I've been sick," she tries to stay quiet, her throat beginning to throb.

He nods and stands, helping her to lay back down. He sits on the side of the bed, her hand in his as she starts to fall back asleep.

A few minutes after he sees that she's already asleep, he sees that she's starting to shiver again. He stands, slipping his hand out of hers as he goes to look for another blanket. He opens the closet, finding one on the top shelf.

He's reaching to get it when he hears her shuffling around in the bed. He mutters a curse as he hears her whimper his name. "I'm right here, Em, I'm just getting another blanket for you. Just give me a second," he manages to get the blanket down without knocking everything else off of the shelves.

He unfolds it and shakes it out before spreading it out over her. "Okay," he pulls it up under her chin, making sure that nothing but her face is poking out of it. He pulls the chair up closer to her head, sitting down in it. "I'm right here, you're okay, just go back to sleep," he whispers, brushing her hair back behind her ears since her hands are covered up.

She wakes up again about three hours later, and while she's still not feeling 100%, she can stand for long enough that he can strip the bed of all of the sheets and carry them to the washing machine before he has to come back to catch her, which is quite the improvement.


	3. I'll keep you warm

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> First date- Tallahassee missing scene

"So, you left?" she asks him, looking away from the pavement to see his face as he responds.

He nods, taking a sip of his long cold coffee, "Yeah, I did," he confirms, checking to see how she'd react- what she'd have to say to that.

Her expression is unreadable- he hadn't known many people who could do that; mask how they were feeling, but she's got it down to a science- "I left a few times, actually. But the last time, he was supposed to come with me. He even made a promise. But later on, something happened and I couldn't really go back."

She takes a breath, looking down at the sidewalk once again. "Why don't you go back now, then? Try and see it'd work out now…" she trails off and he shrugs, looking up at her.

"I'm not sure that he's still there," he mumbles. She looks down at the ground, a hint of disappointment in her eyes- something readable, finally. "What?" he asks, trying to get something out of her, trying to get her to open up.

She shakes her head, looking down at the ground. "Just- I just don't understand," she sighs, picking her head back up. "If you have a home with your parents- who love you- I don't get why you'd leave. Even if they choose something else over you, at least you've got a home, right?" he can tell that she's confused, now- maybe even angry- but he likes this girl. He doesn't want to run.

He nods, tilting his head to the side and going to sit on the bench on the sidewalk in front of his parked car. "It was too much, to be there with him. He'd go and do these horrible- and I mean horrible things, and he'd tell me it was to protect me- to defend my honor, and stuff. I just don't think it's better. Do I miss him? Yeah. Do I wanna go back? Maybe a little bit. But am I willing to hurt myself like that again? No way," he tries to explain in a way she can understand, but maybe she just can't.

She did grow up in the homes of people who weren't her parents, after all. Maybe all she could understand was that once you had that, you shouldn't leave it. Maybe she didn't understand what it would be like to grow up with parents that were yours and weren't there for you to have them.

She shrugs, looking down again. "I guess I just can't get it," she mumbles and he nods, looking away from her. He'd known her for a few hours at most and had already pissed her off. Wonderful.

He wakes up that night to tossing and turning in the backseat of the bug. It goes on for what feels like forever until he's had enough.

"Emma?" he calls, sitting up and turning around to face the backseat. He sees her sit up and shove her glasses onto her face. "You okay?"

She nods, looking down. He tilts his head to the side, turning around to turn on the overhead light. "You just- um- seem like you're not," he suggests, turning back to face her.

She shrugs, looking down at the ground. "Just stuck in my head, I guess," she mumbles, picking at the pilling on the blanket he'd given her.

He nods, moving to sit on the center console. He's determined to figure this girl out- even if she's not willing to tell him. "Wanna talk about it?"

She raises an eyebrow at him, looking at his stance in between the seats. "Isn't that a bad idea? This car is ready to collapse as it is," she asks, clearly avoiding the topic.

He nods, looking at the seats. "It most definitely is," he chuckles, looking across the car at her. "So, what's on your mind?" he asks quietly, trying not to intimidate her more than he already might've.

She looks down at the blanket again. "I just- sometimes I miss my parents, I guess," she sighs, "and I know it's stupid, 'cause I've never even met them, but… I still do," he shakes his head, climbing off the center console and going to sit down next to her.

"It's not stupid," he reassures, arranging himself so that he's leaning against the window, facing her.

She looks up at him, glaring at him pointedly, "You've met your parents, you have a right to miss them. Of course, it's not stupid to you."

He shakes his head, picking at the cuff of his sleeve. "I don't, really. Have a right to miss them, I mean. I don't," she starts to open her mouth, probably to ask him why, but he keeps going. "I'm the one who left him. Even if he was supposed to come with me, I-"

"Wait, so he was supposed to come with you, and he chose not to? That's not you leaving him, that's him leaving you, Neal. That's abandonment," she tells him, and he's quiet for a minute. "He left you," she whispers, realizing what he's been doing. "Why didn't you tell me?" she asks, reaching over and taking his hand.

He's surprised by the gesture at first, and he squeezes her hand back. "I sorta did," he chuckles, but she shakes her head.

"Not really, you told me that he was supposed to come with you and then something happened, and you ended up alone," she recalls, and he shrugs, looking at her blanket. "Here, we can share it, it's freezing," she moves closer to him, putting part of the blanket on his lap, too.

"Thanks," he mumbles, helping flatten it out. "I think maybe I underestimated you," he chuckles, and she tilts her head, chuckling along with him.

"What do you mean?"

He starts picking at the blanket, too. He's never done that before, he's always tried to let it ruin itself, but he figures that if she's already doing it, it'll have unraveled by the weekend.

"Well," he starts, "you don't really give off an 'i'm gonna share this blanket with you' vibe, Emma," he explains, and she laughs, looking down and pushing her glasses back up on her face.

She smiles, looking at the ground. "I try not to," he raises his eyebrows, not expecting her to have shared that with him, "people tend to take advantage of those people," she explains and he nods, tilting his head to the side.

"And I'm not going to?" he chuckles, pulling off another chunk of fabric from the blanket.

She laughs, looking straight up at him, "Oh, dude, you're also one of those people."


	4. don't you worry

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Tallahassee AU- Henry won't sleep in his new bed

They'd just gotten Henry to sleep in his own bed.

A brand new bed that he got a few months ago, and he was in love with it. It's a bright red racecar, one that he had named Lightning McQueen before he even got a chance to test it out at the store.

The first few nights, he was hesitant to be in his own room by himself, but after Neal pinky-promised twice that he'd stay with Henry until he fell asleep, he started to warm up to the idea. Having his parent's dreamcatcher right above his bed helped, too.

For a few weeks, they were able to get him to sleep in his bed. There was always some hesitation, mostly because he 'wasn't tired', but he always stayed the whole night.

Now, he's starting to fall back. For the past two weeks, every night at varying hours, he'd run into his parents' bedroom and he'd beg to be let into their bed until they almost had to give in.

One night, Emma questions him as he gets into the bed, assisted by Neal. "Why can't you stay in your own bed, kid?" he climbed across the bed into her lap. "Do you have bad dreams?"

He nods, his little body twisting so he could reach his arms around Emma's neck. "There's a monster that comes and takes me away in my dream if I don't come and find you," he whispers, putting his head down on her shoulder, breathing into her neck.

She looks to Neal, who looks down at the blankets before moving out further on the bed and going to sit in front of Henry. "Buddy, the monster isn't real," he promises, putting his hand on his back.

Henry shakes his head, burying his face in Emma's neck. "Then why'd it take me away? If it's not real it can't take me away," he whispers, his grip tightening around Emma.

Neal looks to Emma, his eyes pleading her to help, to offer him some way to take away Henry's nightmares. He's pulled out of his thoughts by Henry starting to cry, his whole little body shaking as he practically tries to dissolve himself into Emma's chest.

Neal reaches over, seeing that he's starting to make it too hard for Emma to breathe. "Oh, buddy," he grunts, pulling Henry's flailing body off of Emma.

It takes a minute to do it, but he manages to free Emma from Henry's grasp. Unfortunately, the minute he does, Henry starts fighting Neal, his little fists delivering blows to his chest by the second. "Henry, buddy," he calls, trying to reach out to grab him.

It doesn't do much good, as he continues to thrash about, crying and screaming. "Henry, baby," Emma tries, reaching forwards to grab around his waist, but he moves too quickly for her to get a hold on him that won't hurt him.

It takes them a few minutes of struggling, but Neal's eventually able to get Henry into his arms. He holds him tight against his chest, preventing him from being able to thrash around properly. "It's okay, buddy. It's okay."

He moves around, still, not quite calmed down yet, but he's no longer throwing punches. "Henry, bud," he calls, trying to hold him back as he struggles to get away.

He's able to pull him down onto his lap and hold him there without him screaming and fighting. "What's wrong, little man?" he asks, trying to get through to him despite the squirming and crying that he's continued to do.

He shakes his head, his eyes closed and his whole little body trembling. He looks down and sees his fists are still balled up. "Kiddo, I need you to tell me why you're upset so I can help you, okay?" he shakes his head tensely, still, his eyes remaining closed.

Emma looks up at him, tears starting to build in her eyes. "Do you want to go to mama?" Henry nods, his eyes still squeezed shut. "Okay, you have to be gentle, though, okay? Don't squeeze her so tight," he picks him up, passing him over to Emma, who pulls him back to her chest and he instantly clings to her, his arms going as far around her shoulders as they can.

She holds him while he cries for a little while longer, rocking him side to side and trying to soothe him at least a little bit. Neal eventually moved by her side, wrapping an arm around her shoulders.

When he finally calms down a little bit, he moves to sit in a more comfortable position in her lap. "I think we need some hot cocoa, don't we?" Emma looks to Neal, who nods and smiles. Henry nods, tired from all the energy he's put into crying and fighting with Neal.

Emma stands and picks him up, carrying him to the kitchen. She tries to put him down to go and make the hot chocolate, but he puts up a fight about it, as he stays wrapped around her neck. "Do you want to go with papa? I can't hold you and make the cocoa, sweetie." There's a moment's hesitation before he nods and Emma passes him off to Neal, who goes to sit at the breakfast bar.

It's quiet while she makes the cocoa, and it's quiet while they drink it, too. Once they're done, they put the mugs in the sink and walk back to the bedroom. "Okay, it's bedtime now, okay?" Emma throws the blanket over Neal and Henry, who had wedged himself between the two on the bed.

He shakes his head violently, his eyes starting to water once again. "Okay, it's not then, okay? It's not bedtime," she promises, picking him up and trying to prevent a major meltdown like the one that happened earlier in the evening. "It's just time to be quiet, okay? That's all. It's just time to be quiet and rest," she smooths his hair back, letting him rest his head on her shoulder as she leans back.

He nods, digging his head further into her shirt. "I love you, Mama. I love you, Papa," he whispers, rubbing his eyes with his hand.

"Love you, too."

"I love you, too, buddy."

Within ten minutes, Henry's dead asleep with both of his parent's holding onto him. Nobody wakes up with a nightmare for the rest of the night.


	5. dancing in a downpour

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> White Out AU with Neal instead of Hook

Neal's ready, arms open and standing tall, waiting for David to pass Emma off to him. She's paler than he's ever seen her, her lips are blue, and she looks like she's about ready to pass out- but she's still alive.

He reaches out, grabbing onto her waist to help her stand, and pulling her up to him. She shivers against him, holding onto him as tight as she can- which is fairly loose, if he was being honest.

He breathes against her neck and she lets out a whimper. He turns his head, paying more attention to that than holding her up. Her knees lock. He can feel her starting to fall and he tightens his grip around her waist. "You okay?" it's somewhat useless; he knows she's not.

She nods, holding onto him, but he can feel her hands slipping on his neck. He reaches down and picks her up, walking slowly as he carries her over to the car, trying not to jostle her around too much.

It takes them getting to the car for him to notice the tears in her eyes, and more importantly, the cut on her forehead that's more than likely to scar. He holds her for a minute, waiting for David to come by and help him open the door, before he slides her into the car.

She clings to him like her life depends on it (and in her delirious and emotional state, she probably thinks it does), and he has to convince her that it'll only be a minute before she sees him again as he tugs off his coat and puts it around her shoulders. "Please stay," she whimpers, stuttering over letters until she can get the sentence out.

He shakes his head, pulling her hand back from it's grip on his shirt. "I'll be right back," he insists, pulling the jacket back up and around her. "I promise, I'll be right back," he then stands back up, checking to make sure her fingers aren't in the way, before slamming the door closed and running around the back of the car.

He hears David trying to talk to him, but he's too caught up trying to get back to Emma to care. As soon as he gets the door open, he's in the car. "See, I told you, I'm here now," he tells her and she nods, trying to move to put her head down. He stops her shoulder as she gets closer and he moves over to her, sitting in the middle seat.

"You can put your head down, but you can't sleep, okay? Not until we get you warmed up," he whispers, pulling her to him. She's cold to the touch, but she immediately turns herself to get closer to him. He gently picks her up and puts her on his lap.

He puts his hand on her head, holding it to his shoulder as she starts to squirm around, trying to avoid the heat from the overhead fans. "It's okay, you'll be okay," he shifts her a bit in order to reach into his pocket and grab his phone to call Henry.

He picks up on the first ring and Neal has never been happier to have such an attentive child. "Hey, Dad, what's-"

Neal cuts him off mid-sentence. "Hey, Henry, bud? I need you to get out all of the blankets you can find, okay? And I need you to search how to treat hypothermia," he hears a gasp on the other line. "We're on our way home, okay, I just need you to do those things for me."

After Henry promises that he'll do so, he hangs up to take care of Emma, who's moving around so much on his lap that you'd think that he's burning her. "Em, please, please, just stop, okay? You're okay, we're going home, I just need you to calm yourself down," he puts his hand against her head again and he hold her to him, not giving her room to move around.

They pull up to the apartment and he opens the door, adjusting her in his arms and walking her into the building. David moves the coffee table and Neal walks over sitting Emma down and going to grab some of the blankets on the armchair in front of them. "Neal," he looks up at the sound of his name. "Go sit with her, me and Henry can get the blankets," he pauses, then walks over to the couch, sitting beside Emma and putting the blanket on her.

It's then, now that they don't have to worry about getting her home, he realizes how wet her clothes are. At that moment, Snow comes running through the door. "Is she okay? What can I do?" she asks, going and setting little Leo down in his crib.

David and Henry both turn to her, thinking, while Neal calls, "She needs dry clothes. Warm ones, too," and Snow is up the stairs before anyone has a chance to respond. Emma releases a quiet cry and Neal pulls her against him, "It's okay. You're safe," he whispers, holding her in a tight grip.

He looks up at David and Henry, who have both grabbed blankets and started piling them on her. He covers her ears with his hands as David walks over to put another blanket on her lap. "She needs to be in the hospital, man," he whispers, being overly cautious as not to scare Henry.

David looks down at his daughter, who's so cold that she's not shivering in Neal's arms, and he nods, looking down at him. "I'll go with Henry and start the truck, you have Snow put those clothes in a bag, okay?" he asks, not waiting for a reply as he grabs Henry's shoulder and leaves the loft with him.

Not a minute later, Snow comes running down the steps, only to find her husband and grandson gone. "Oh! Where's Henry and David?" she asks, walking over with some fluffy pajamas that are so, so not Emma-like.

With his hand still over Emma's ear, he whispers, "Starting the truck, we're taking her to the ER. Can you bag those?" he asks, swinging Emma's legs over his lap and getting ready to pick her up.

Her eyes widen and she nods, walking into the kitchen to grab a plastic grocery bag. "I'll be there as soon as I can, I just have to find a sitter for Leo," she explains, shoving the clothes in a band and stringing it on Neal's held-out arm.

He nods, tightening his grip on Emma as her arms loosen around his neck. "I'll let David know. Belle might be up for it, if you call," he suggests, walking towards the door, letting Snow open it for him. "We'll call with updates," he walks out the door, looking to Snow and she nods, walking up to him and giving Emma a kiss on the forehead.

She's barely responsive enough to notice, let alone care, but she tries to smile. "Feel better, baby," she squeezes Emma's arm before taking a deep breath and stepping back. "See you soon," she calls, closing the door.

At the hospital, Whale gets Emma onto a gurney and wheels her back, not giving Henry a chance to follow, or even really say goodbye. Neal reaches over, pulling his son into a hug. "She'll be okay, buddy. She's a tough one," he brushes his hair back with his fingers.

Henry nods, pressing his face into Neal's chest. "I know," he chokes, squeezing his arms around his dad.

It takes about a half hour for them to get any news, and when they do, it's that Neal needs to follow Whale into the back, where they're keeping Emma. "We're going to try supplying body heat. With the state that she's in now, it's our best option. You just have to take off your shoes and help her lay close to you. You'll want to hold her as close as you can, it'll provide for a larger surface area, therefore, a faster recovery," they approach the door and Neal's nerves start increasing by quite a bit.

"Call me when she starts shivering. It's a key point in the warming up process and when we'll be able to detect nerve damage." Nerve damage? Neal's mind explodes, not having necessarily realized the severity of this situation. Whale holds the door open, letting Neal go up to the bed and take off his shoes.

He sits on the bed beside her and Whale interrupts him. "If you're wearing a thick shirt or multiple layers, you might have Snow bring a thinner one or take it off, it'll help this go faster," he offers, before closing the door behind him and leaving Neal to fend for himself.

His sweater is quite thick and he wonders for a second how upset Emma will be when she wakes up to this, but then he figures, hey, at least it's better than being dead, and pulls it over his head. He yanks the blankets back, laying beside her and pulling the blanket over them before gently easing her towards him. She whines a bit, but sighs quietly as she relaxes.

David and Henry come in a bit later, questioning to no end why Neal is laying with Emma, and furthermore, why he's not wearing a shirt. He carefully and quietly explains the situation and proceeds to beg David to have Snow bring him a better shirt. David is in no place to protest.

Within the next hour, Snow gets there, Neal is given a new shirt which he can't put on until Emma wakes up, and most importantly, Neal feels Emma starting to shake against him. It takes him a minute to realize that's what's happening, and he asks David to call Whale.

He comes into the room and checks her vitals. "Just keep holding her. She should wake up soon, call me again when she does," he makes a few notes on her chart before he leaves. Neal mentally prepares for the worst of it; her waking up and being in pain or feeling sick, or being delusional and not remembering who any of them are, or even just being pissed that they're in this state- in the hospital bed together.

He waits, trying not to let his nerves show, until Emma wakes up. "Hey," he whispers, putting his hand on her back, letting her pick her head up. "You okay?" he picks his head up to look at her.

She nods, looking up at him and rubbing her eye. "What happened?" she mumbles, still stuttering a little bit, but not nearly as badly as before.

"You don't remember?" he shakes his head, squinting a bit.

She puts her head back down, cuddling up against him when she realizes how warm she is. "I remember why I'm here. Why are you- what's going on?" she looks up at him and he chuckles. She's okay. "Why are you laughing at me?" she pouts, picking her head up and looking at him.

He laughs a little harder, putting his hand on her head and gently pulling her back down to him. "I love you," he mumbles, kissing her forehead. "Whale said body heat was the fastest way to heat you up, so he did that and I think those are warmed fluids in the IV," she immediately picks her head up to look at the needle in her arm and drops herself back down to his chest.

Snow moves closer to the bed, taking her needle-less hand. "Speaking of which-" she starts and David stands, going to find Dr. Whale. "Hey, baby," she looks at Emma, who had just rolled over to face her mom, her head still resting on Neal's chest and her back now pressed against his side, "How you doing?"

Emma smiles, squeezing her mom's hand. "Tired. Still cold," and she wasn't wrong. Both Neal and Snow could feel the cold on her skin, how she still felt like ice. Neal, upon hearing that, turns onto his side and wraps her up in his arms. "Warmer, now," she smiles.

Snow chuckles a little bit, kissing her on the head before standing and turning to grab the bag with her clothes in it. "I brought you some clothes, you can put them on if the doctor says it's okay," she sits, putting the bag in her lap.

Neal snuggles into her shoulder, turning his head to whisper in her ear. "You scared the crap out of all of us," he squeezes her extra tight, kissing her temple.

She closes her eyes, leaning back against him. "I'm sorry," and she feels Snow take her hand back, holding it in both of hers.

"We're glad you're okay, honey," she stands up and moves forwards, bending over to kiss Emma's forehead.

She opens her eyes, looking up at Snow and squeezing her hand back. "Thank you. Me, too," she curls herself up more, leaning into Neal's chest. "Love you, guys," she mumbles, clearly vaguely embarrassed about this whole thing.

They both voice their 'I love you's back to her, and for the rest of the night, they sleep, hoping that nothing like what happened that day would ever happen again.


	6. super-mama

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Henry doesn't quite understand Emma's job- Tallahassee AU

Neal walks up the the porch of Henry's school, taking in a deep breath before opening the door and walking inside. He looks around for the numbers above the doors, like Emma said there would be, only to find that the number '3' isn't in that hallway.

He walks down the hall and to the left until he comes across a room, right through the office. The lady sitting at the desk in the small room smiles at him and he does the same before walking through it and into the room, just like he's supposed to.

He looks around the room a little bit until his eyes land on his little boy, who's sitting at his desk and coloring a picture, his backpack and lunch beside him and ready to go. He walks up behind him, kneeling down to his level. "Hey, buddy," he greets and Henry turns around super quickly, wrapping his arms around his dad's neck.

Neal smiles against Henry's neck, looking at his picture for a second. "For Mama's desk," he says and Neal nods, looking Henry in the eyes and smiling brightly at him. "Do you think she'll like it?" he asks and Neal nods, putting his hand on Henry's back.

Henry looks at him until he says something just a few minutes later. "She'll love it, kiddo. Do you know where your teacher is?" he asks and Henry nods, standing up. Neal grabs his paper, putting it into his backpack before following him across the room.

Neal takes his hand and smiles as he walks up behind him. "Ms. Leah?" Henry asks, looking up at his teacher. She looks over at him and smiles before looking up at Neal. "This is my Papa," he tells her and she smiles, nodding and reaching to shake his hand.

The teacher smiles at him as she does so, making eye contact. "Leah Smith," she introduces and let's go of Neal's hand.

"Neal Cassidy," he says and she nods, looking down at Henry. "I'm supposed to pick him up today, my wife's at work," he explains and she nods in understanding, not saying anything. "She said I had to check in with you before taking him," again, the teacher nods.

Neal sighs, nodding once more at her before taking Henry's hand and leading him outside the back door and to his red pickup truck. Henry stops in front of the car and Neal looks down at him. "Papa, I don't think this is your car," he says, looking up at his dad and Neal chuckles, putting his hand on Henry's shoulder.

He squeezes it gently while Henry stares at the car in confusion. "It is, buddy. I got new colored license plates, that's what's different," he explain and Henry takes in a breath of realization, looking over the plates in awe. "None of your mama's friends can pull me over anymore, now," he mumbles and Henry giggles, clearly understanding what it means to be pulled over.

They get into the car and Henry buckles himself up into his seat, seeing as Emma had taught him to do it on his own a few months before. Neal turns the radio on and they begin their car ride home.

It's about five minutes into the twenty minute drive that Henry asks his question. "Papa," he calls and Neal looks at his son through the rear-view mirror. "What's Mama do?" he asks and Neal sighs, looking at the road. This'll be a hard one to answer.

He looks in the mirror once again to find his son staring at him through it. "Well, buddy, she helps the police with catching the bad guys…" he begins to explain, and before he can add anything to it, Henry's hands go up in the air.

"She's like a superhero!" he calls without question and Neal nods, looking back at Henry and chuckling. "Mama's our superhero, Papa!" Henry yells from the backseat, and while it's distracting, nothing has ever made Neal want to let out a high-pitched high-school-girl squeal than when Henry said that.

Emma's already home when they get there and Henry goes running into the kitchen to meet her. "Mama! You're a superhero!" he exclaims as she picks him up and she tilts her head to the side, smiling but confused. "Because you get the bad guys," he explains and she smiles, chuckling at the idea of her being a superhero.

She puts her on his side as he holds onto her. "Henry, baby, I'm not a superhero, I'm a-" he cuts her off with his arms thrown around her neck.

"Yes you are!" he yells, and she knows better than to argue with a feisty four-year-old.


	7. the ghost of you

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> emma's seeing neal- except neal's not there. or is he?

She’s shaking when she wakes up.

Neal’s right there, holding her hand, while her parents stand in the corner of the room. How long they’d been there, she doesn’t know, but she’s hoping that it hasn’t been too long.

They stand there for a minute, making sure that she won’t lash out at them, before David comes over and puts his hand on her shoulder. 

“Emma, you okay?” 

She looks up at him and nods, staring for a minute, still processing what’s happened. 

He stands there for a minute, squeezing her shoulder every once in a while, before leaning down to look her in the eyes. “Do you want us to stay?” He looks genuinely concerned and she knows better than to worry them more- they’ll never leave her alone again. 

She shakes her head and he nods, squeezing her shoulder once more. “Okay, just call us if you need us,” he tells her, waiting for her to nod before slowly standing fully and turning around to leave with Snow. 

Neal looks at her from where he is next to the bed, squeezing her hand. “It’s okay. It’s just a bad dream, it’s not real,” he whispers. 

She nods, tugging on his hand, silently asking him to come over to her. He stands, still holding her hand, and moves to sit by her on the bed, reaching down and grabbing her under the arm to pull her up to him. 

She’s not sure how this works, exactly. She only knows that she can see him, and nobody else can. She can’t tell her parents this- or Henry, for that matter. It wouldn’t be fair to them, and she’s not sure how real it is. 

There’s the idea that she could very well be crazy, but it’s Storybrooke- he could be there in spirit or something else that made it just a little bit less delusional. Even still, it’s comforting to know that he’s there with her on some level. 

He lies there, holding onto her for a while- it doesn’t feel like long, but it must be, because the sun comes up just a little bit more in the time that they’re there. Soon, he’s telling her that he has to go, but that he’d be back later. 

“When will you tell me what’s happening? Don’t you know how I can bring you back?” she looks up at him, resting her chin on his chest while he looks down at her. 

He smirks, looking down at her. “I never said I wouldn’t tell you, you just never asked,” he pauses, looking down at her. “I’m not really sure, actually. You might try tears of true love or somethin’- I’ve heard about that working. But don’t do it now, okay? You need a break from all that crying,” he chuckles, leaning down and kissing her forehead. “I love you. I have to go now,” he whispers, and she clings to him tighter, waiting as he disappears. 

She tries to convince herself to wait, but there’s absolutely no logic behind it and she can’t help it. She gets up and gets dressed, going down to her car and driving to the graveyard. After sitting in front of his grave for long enough, she manages to make herself cry.

Somehow, she finds a way to drop the tears above where his body is. She waits for the signature ‘True Love woosh’, but after a few seconds, nothing happens. 

She stands, looking down at the grave as the tears become genuine and out of grief. After a minute, the grave starts to waver with colors- possibly just her vision being distorted because of the tears, but she hopes- maybe even prays- that it’s something more than that.

It stops after a few seconds, but she remains crying, not sure if she’d imagined it or not. 

“I told you to wait until tomorrow,” she hears from behind her, and she turns around to find him standing there, waiting for her. He runs over to her before she has a chance to sink in what’s happening. Her arms are around him without her trying to and she chokes on a sob as he squeezes her. 

“I couldn’t when I knew how to get you back,” she mumbles, resting her head on his shoulder. He loosens his squeezing hold on her, giving her room to lean back if she wants to. “Is this real?” she steps back, not enough to pull herself out of his arms, but just enough to see his face. 

He smiles, leaning forwards and kissing her. “Did that feel real?” 

She smiles, kissing him back, quickly and hard. She breaks away after a minute, urgently enough for him to be concerned. She takes a minute, but then relaxes. “I’m just not going to work today.”

He laughs, wrapping his arm around her as they start to walk back home. “You’re ridiculous,” she looks up at him in mock offense, pouting. “You know I love you,” he mumbles, turning his head to kiss her. 

When they get to the bug, he walks around to the driver’s side with her, standing and waiting for a second before stopping. “Oh, wait,” he goes around to the other side as she laughs at him. “Hey, in my defense, I haven’t been in this car in- what, 12 years?” 

She nods, starting the car, still chuckling, “I know.” 

He takes her hand as soon as they get out of the car and they walk upstairs together. Snow’s already taken Henry to school, but David’s still home, washing dishes. As soon as he sees Neal, he drops a plate into the sink, successfully chipping it. 

“Uh, hi?” Neal greets, sucking in a breath through his teeth as David picks up the badly chipped plate. 

David smiles at him, putting the plate to the side. “Well, hi. Welcome back, Neal.”


	8. to be young and in love

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> emma falls asleep early. somewhat new things are said between them.

Neal stares up at the ceiling, sighing heavily.

Emma had fallen asleep long ago, and he’d been awake the whole time, listening to her breathing, as per the usual. Normally, it works pretty well. Tonight isn’t one of those nights. 

She’s fairly far away tonight- further than she is most nights, at least. If he wants to hold her, he’d have to move her so much that it’d almost definitely wake her up. She doesn’t usually sleep to well, anyway, so when this happens, it’s not unusual for her to come over and curl up against him on her own. So, he waits.

He waits long enough that it becomes almost tedious, and he grunts, carefully trying to get on his side so not to wake her up. Once he’s settled, he reaches over, beginning to draw little hearts over her back, tracing the words ‘I love you’ repeatedly. 

The almost-silence of the room makes it feel like the only life in the apartment is the two of them, although Henry is asleep in his room next door, and her parents are downstairs, either having some down time while the baby sleeps or trying to get to that point. 

After many minutes of doodling little words and shapes on her back, he gives up hope of doing anything entertaining- or boring enough to make himself tired- and finally turns the lights out, lying on his back and closing his eyes.

When he feels arms go around him, he opens his eyes to find Emma lying there, her arms wrapped around him, and clearly very much awake. “I love you, too,” she whispers, her voice a little bit uncertain but at the same time confident as ever. 

Immediately, his face turns beet red. If she didn’t have his arms held down by his sides, he’d probably cover his eyes. “You picked that up from doodles?” 

She nods, blushing a bit and laying her head down. 

They hadn’t confessed to loving each other- not officially, not when it hasn’t been an emergency. It had become almost unfamiliar to him to hear it; almost as unfamiliar as it felt for her to say it. Now, though, after having heard it over the portal, and again in Neverland, it felt right. 

He didn’t feel like it was rushed, or that it was something to say besides ‘you better not leave me again’. It reassures him that this is serious for her, too. That she’s not just using him as something to distract from the madness of Storybrooke. 

He keeps this in mind as she falls back asleep on him, this time with him following shortly behind. 

The next morning, as they’re rushing to get ready, having hit snooze on their first two alarms, they’re just a tad bit happier than they would normally be; there’s kisses on the cheek each time they pass, there’s smiling and fumbling around with their jackets, phones, and keys as they try to remember everything, 

At the station, they manage to love on each other in the subtlest of ways to avoid being scolded by her father. They sneak kisses with the exchange of paperwork and share soft smiles from across the station. At lunch, Emma goes out and brings back Granny’s, giving them a fair reason to sit in her office together and talk for awhile before they have to start working again. 

Once lunch is over, Neal has to head back to his desk, and Emma has to finish all of her paperwork, resulting in them not getting to talk for the rest of the day. Even after their many years of experience being seperated, their hearts both still ache when they’re not able to be together- although three hours pales in comparison to eleven years. Still, they leave each other to do their work, hoping to get to go home sooner that way. 

They get to leave at around 4:30- better than what Emma thought it would turn out to be- and they drive back together. The second they get home, they start making dinner, teasing and cracking jokes which results in them getting compared to children by her mother- more than once, as well. 

That night, as they get ready for bed, Neal watches her, wondering how he’d managed to have such an amazing woman steal his stolen car.


	9. keep you safe

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> henry has a nightmare

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> TW: Nightmares

Henry wakes up panting, sweating more than he ever has. He takes a minute to look around and makes sure that he’s not still in the burning room, before closing his eyes in relief. He takes a deep breath, trying as hard as possible not to think about his dream, but it doesn’t seem to help at all.

He thinks about going downstairs to get water, but he decides against it, afraid of waking up his new uncle. He sits in bed for a few minutes, not daring to move from the position he forced himself into when he woke up. 

After a little while, he reaches his arm out, going to brush back the curtain from the window, hoping that seeing the snow on the streets would take away the memories of the nightmare he just had. All it does is freak him out even more. 

He knows that he shouldn’t be scared of the footprints in the snow, knowing full well that nobody’s been able to drive anywhere because of the snow, but it reminds him too much of his dream- all of those people, in the room, all of them dirty and broken and bloody; all of them crying out for help.

He wasn’t able to save any of them, not a single one. There had been things flying around, hitting people and knocking them down, some of the just passing out, but others that were dying. He was yelling at them to listen, to try to calm down, but nobody listened to him. 

He started breathing too heavily, too hard as he sat there. He let the curtain fall back as he saw another person, shuddering as he saw all of the people that didn’t survive. He wipes his tears away, even though he knows it won’t stop. 

It takes him too long to look up at the clock, but when he does he sees that it’s only midnight. He pulls off his blankets, his feet hitting the cool ground as he goes in search of his parents. He turns around every few seconds when the floor creaks to make sure that there’s nobody behind him. 

He’s still shaking and there are still tears, but he’s more focused on getting to his mom and dad alive than he is on how upset he is. 

When he gets to the door, it creaks open as he pushes it, causing both his parents to look up at him. It clicks for Emma that something’s wrong first, as she holds her arms out to him. “Kid, what happened?”

He doesn’t even say anything, he just walks over to where she’s sitting on the bed and crawls into her arms, hugging her extra tightly. She hugs him back, of course, her hand on the back of his head- she’s found for herself that it’s strangely comforting.

Neal finishes getting ready for bed, Emma having already done so (hence why she could help Henry), and climbs in the bed beside them. He’s at a loss for words.

Henry’s usually a pretty tough kid- there’s nothing wrong with crying, of course, but the handful of times that he’s seen him cry, he’s been hurt. Like, blood and bruises, hurt. As far as he can see, there’s none of that happening right now. 

After a few minutes of having been curled up in his mom’s arms, he decides to move to Neal, needing a bit of love from both of his parents.

Neal, unaware that Henry’d even noticed that he’s there, takes a bit of a shock when he moves over to his lap, hugging him probably even tighter than he did Emma. 

Emma, who sees that they’re handling this whole thing just fine, decides to go and finish up getting ready for the night- she doesn’t even really leave the room, but the second that she gets up Neal starts worrying about what he’s supposed to do.

He takes a minute to just think. When Emma’s upset, he just holds her, not completely unlike he’s holding Henry right now. He pulls him a bit closer, causing Henry to make a little ‘oof’ noise. 

Emma comes back, and Neal’s sure the look on his face is amazing as he practically begs her to take Henry. She tilts her head to the side- if she could scold him without Henry knowing, she would. 

It’s not as if Neal doesn’t want to comfort him. He’s just not completely sure how to. There have been very few times where Henry’s cried in front of him, and when he has he wasn’t this upset. It was almost always just other stuff that could be resolved with a pep talk and a milkshake. 

This, clearly, cannot. 

He sighs quietly, trying to keep it from altering the way he’s breathing too much, as well, not wanting to disturb Henry. Speaking of, they still haven’t figured out what’s wrong yet, Neal realizes. 

He takes a second, rubbing his back, before starting to talk. “Henry, bud?” he doesn’t respond, but instead snuggles deeper into his chest. He looks up at Emma, making his best ‘help me’ face. 

She moves closer to them, putting her hand on Henry’s back. “Kid,” she calls, trying to keep somewhat quiet, not to wake the baby downstairs. 

Henry picks his head up, still shaking, but his cries having quieted just a little bit. 

Neal looks between him and Emma, worry clear in his eyes. “You okay?” he asks, looking over at him. 

Henry nods, putting his head back down on Neal’s chest. He’s made it clear that he doesn’t want to be questioned too much and neither of his parents are about to do that to him. 

He let’s go of Neal, moving to his back and wedging himself in between his parents on the bed. “There were a lot of people that got hurt and I couldn’t save them,” he explains, clearing up that it had to have been a nightmare to his parents. 

Emma moves back, rolling on her side and reaching up to brush Henry’s hair off of his forehead, trying to help comfort him. “Kid, it wasn’t real. You haven’t done anything wrong, even if that’s what happened in your dream, that’s not what would’ve happened in real life,” she tries to explain. 

He sniffles a little bit, closing his eyes. His chin is wobbling again, but the tears have slowed down by a lot. “What if they are real, though? It was in the red room, everything else has been real there,” he debates, looking over at his parents. “What if they try to get to us?” 

Neal shakes his head, looking into Henry’s eyes. He puts his hand on his arm, rubbing it up and down. “We’re gonna keep you safe, buddy. There not gonna get to you,” he promises, leaning over and kissing his forehead. 

Both of his parents move to hold onto him. They realize that they can’t exactly both do that, so Neal holds onto him and Emma takes one of his hand. It’s a bit awkward, but it’s not entirely uncomfortable, and they know that Henry needs it. “What if they get to you guys?” he asks, out of the blue.

Emma responds this time, chuckling with her response. “They won’t. I’m a super-magic princess warrior, remember? Nobody’s gonna get to any of us, as long as I’m as stubborn as I am,” she whispers, Neal squeezing him tight around his shoulders. 

With that, he’s satisfied, and he takes deep breath, cuddling closer to his dad. 

Within a few minutes, he’s still, breathing completely steadily, his body no longer shaking. 

Usually, Emma would be upset if someone stole her spot in Neal’s arms, but she knows that Henry needs it more than her right now. She grabs Henry’s arm, gently, and hugs it to her, and falls asleep with both of her boys right by her


	10. trust me

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> dark one neal is having problems sleeping. hopefully, emma will be able to help.

Emma hears Neal’s voice, sitting up slowly in bed. 

She tries hard not to make noise, not wanting to scare him and risk someone getting hurt- or worse, accidently killed.

There aren’t many times that the gang ends up in another realm, but when they do, it’s because someone is lost or hurt- or both. 

Point is, it’s never planned, nor on purpose.

This time is no different- Neal’s now the Dark One. So, Emma had Gold use the blood-relative-tracker thing to try and find him, and sure enough, it led them to their old home in the Frontlands, where they’d been camping out for the past few days, trying to find out how to rid him of the darkness.

Emma looks in the direction that they’d set up his bed earlier, waiting for the whispers to quiet before speaking. “Neal?” 

No answer.

She stands, trying to avoid stepping on any limbs while she walks over to his spot, following the whispering, which had resumed since she called his name. 

Once she gets to him, she’s able to make him out faintly in the darkness. “Hey,” she stops in front of him. “Mind if I join you?” she thinks she can see him twitch, but she’s not sure. She sits down anyway, copying his position- knees drawn to her chest, arms on top of them. 

She turns her head to face him. “Can’t sleep?” 

He shakes his head, looking down. “Nope,” he mumbles. 

She can feel the pain he’s in just by seeing him tensed like that, and she feels all the more guilty because of it. 

They’d discussed a while ago that she’s the Dark One that he’s seeing. She can tell that it’s particularly hard for him to decide which Emma to listen to. Everyone has taken a go at distracting him, but it hasn’t worked in any form besides getting right in front of him and forcing him to do something else.

She leans forwards, trying to meet his eyes. “Can I try to help?” 

He nods, picking his head up. She smiles and magics up some sticks and strings, putting them in front of them. “So, dreamcatchers,” she starts, grabbing a stick and holding it. “Are incredibly hard to make.”

He laughs out loud, and she turns to him, smiling. 

“Well, it’s the truth! There’s no easy way to bend a stick into a circle.”

“Just, the way you said it… anyway-”

She smiles, trying to bend the stick and hold it still. “Anyway- you have to, like, break it a little bit, in order for it to actually make something resembling a circle- it won’t be an actual circle, by the way, it’ll be more like a jacked up square-” she’s cut off by more laughter- in the few times she’s heard him laugh in the past few minutes, it almost makes up for her not having heard it for weeks.

There’s a moment when she thinks about telling him that he should be quiet; they’ll wake up Henry. No, she thinks, it’s been much too long since they’ve had a time like this together. Much too long.


	11. you're in my veins

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> TW: hospitals, minor mention of violence
> 
> emma ends up getting a little more than a bruise when tamara knocks her down with a pipe at the cannery. neal's there when she wakes up. swanfire friendship fluff!

A constant, steady, beeping is the first thing that Emma notices when she starts to wake up.

Then, the feeling of sheets around her, clothes that definitely aren’t hers, something itching on her arm, and a hand holding hers. 

The beeping speeds up as she starts to freak out, and she picks up her head, trying to sit up so that she’d be able to go and find her son. And Neal, too, if fate allowed.

She feels a hand on her shoulder, pushing her back just enough to keep her down. “You have broken ribs, take it easy,” she hears, and her eyes snap open. 

Her throat is already sore, so she knows she’s bound to regret it when she croaks out, “and you’re shot.”

Neal chuckles, sitting down on the bed beside her. “It’s a graze, you mom,” he reaches over to the nightstand beside the bed, grabbing the remote and lifting up the head of the bed. He hands her a glass of water, which she accepts gladly. 

She closes her eyes tightly, realizing what she should’ve a while ago- swallowing hurts. Once she’s done writhing in pain, she looks back up at him, “Broken ribs? How’d that happen?” 

“You were beaten with a pipe, Emma. I know you think you’re bulletproof, but you can’t be anything but naive if you thought you’d end up uninjured.”

She looks away from him, a bit embarrassed that she hadn’t realized that she’d been hurt, too. 

He’s right, too. She should’ve seen something coming from that- but she’d think a concussion, from where she’d been hit. 

She shakes her head, sighing- bad idea, again- and looking up at him. “What about Henry?” 

He nods his head to the side, meeting her eyes. “With your parents at the apartment. Regina came pretty close to death, so they’re checkin’ her out before they come down here. It might be good that way, too. It’ll give you time to recover some,” he tries to help, knowing that she’d wanted to see Henry the second she woke up. “You okay?” 

She nods.

He’s here, her parents are coming with Henry, and for the first time, she’s not one-hundred percent alone in the hospital. So, yeah. She’s okay.


	12. despite it all

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> the flying monkey fight in 3x20 with a twist

Everyone’s fighting the flying monkeys. Regina’s taking out multiple monkeys in a minute using her magic. David has his sword. Robin has his crossbow. Emma has her gun- well, she has her now empty gun. So, really, Emma just has her hands.

She tries to get away, moving over to reload it, but as she’s running, she’s tackled. The monkey pins her down, holding her on the ground and digging its talons into her shoulders, drawing blood.

She lets out a cry, trying to push it off of her, but she’s tired and in pain. She tries to push herself down further into the ground, away from it, but she stops when she realizes she’s wasting her energy. 

So, she gives up. Her eyes well up, hoping that someone- her father, Regina, Robin, or anybody else- would notice and come to save her. One arm is numb already, though, and the other is still throbbing. 

She meets the beast's eyes for the first time since she’d been attacked. Instead of finding, cold, cruel eyes she’s been expecting, she finds familiar, warm brown eyes. The second that it sinks in- that she sees its eyes- it let’s go immediately, almost as if it’d recognized her, too. 

It clicks in her brain as she gets up and David comes over with his sword, starting to go after it- him. After him. Neal. 

“Dad, stop!” she yells, screaming at him and watching as her dad continues to go after him. She cries out again as a wave of pain crosses her shoulder. “It’s Neal, dad! He’s not defending himself because he knows you! Stop!” 

As she begs, Regina crushes Zelena’s heart and all of the flying monkeys are returned to their human states. Neal snaps out of it quickly, running over to her to make sure that she’s alright. 

She puts her hand- the one of her less injured arm- on his shoulder. “I’m okay.” 

David runs over, trying to inspect her arm. Emma shakes her head, “I’m fine, go get the baby,” he looks up at her hesitantly before running over to the basket, picking up the baby from it. 

Neal stays back with her, looking at her arm, his eyes filled with concern. He picks his hand up and she glares at him when he looks back at her. “Don’t touch it, I’ll have Whale take care of it when we get back to the hospital, alright?”

He nods, looking down for the rest of the time that they’re waiting for everyone to leave. 

Emma shakes her head, giving him a hug. “I’ll be okay, I’ve sported worse cuts than this.”

He squints, sighing and leaning forwards to kiss her forehead. She smiles, turning and wrapping her arm around him as they followed her father back to the hospital. 

Whale immediately tries to rush her back into the ER, but settled on a clinic room. He had her take her jacket off so that he could stitch up her arm, gave her an ACE bandage to keep it relatively still, and then released her and Neal to go and meet her younger brother.


	13. i've got high hopes

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> sleepless nights in neverland can bring people together in a _special_ kind of way.
> 
> also- i figured out how to do the italics and such!

Emma thinks that it couldn’t be the same for anyone else as it is for her in Neverland. Not being able to sleep at night because of all the boys crying and all of the worrying that she’s doing over finding Henry. It reminds her of all the nights she spent in group homes and police stations just _waiting_ for the day that she’d be able to go off on her own. 

It’s like a giant, jumbled up mess of an island filled with bad memories from her childhood. 

Well, her childhood- and also Neal’s childhood. 

They’d found him earlier in the day, which was really, really, good. He’s with her, and he’ll be able to help find Henry and get them off of the island. Hopefully. 

Now, he’s right outside, sitting against the wall of the cave keeping watch. He’d refused to let anyone else do it- beside Killian, who insisted on staying with him, given that he’s the other ‘veteran of the island’ or whatever. 

She hadn’t thought much of it when he’d offered. She’d assumed that he’s just trying to help out, that he’s just as eager to get back to Henry as she is. 

So, it shocks her quite a bit when she walks out of the cave, the muskiness of it hard for her to breathe- apparently asthma never _completely_ goes away- and she starts coughing, only to find him there, wide awake, with Killian across the clearing passed out. 

“You alright?” he asks and she nods, going to sit beside him. She mimics his position, pulling her knees up to her chest. 

She looks over at him and he meets her gaze. She notices that his eyes are red- either tiredness or tears, she doesn’t know- but she does know that something is wrong. 

She reaches over and takes his hand, hoping and praying that he won’t mention it. “Everything okay?” she asks, knowing that he’s probably going to lie about it and say that everything _is_ okay, when everything is clearly _not_ okay. 

He nods, looking down, clearly lying- which she knew he’d do, to be fair. She lets go of his hand and uses her hand to smack him on the arm. “ _You_ are full of it,” she states, starting to play with the shoelace on her wrist.

He smiles, shaking his head. “Then why’d you ask, if you knew I wouldn’t actually tell you?” 

She smiles, shrugging, “One can hope.”

He looks down, away from her, “I don’t know. I just- this sucks. You know, Henry’s gone, and this island makes you think differently, and I just keep running through my head what would’ve happened if-” 

“I know,” she interrupts him- she doesn’t need to be reminded of that by anybody else- especially when she’s already doing it all on her own. “It’s tough. I don’t think I’ve _actively_ thought about my time in the system since the curse broke- but here, I mean…” she stops there.

“It takes the hope out of you,” he tells her. She nods, looking down.

“It sucks. It makes me want my parents, and they’re _here_. It’s just weird,” she leans over, resting her head on his shoulder. “It’s better knowing that I won’t be alone in this if we don’t find him, though.”

He looks over at her, and she picks her head up, “What do you mean? You have your parents-”

“I know I do, it’s just- they don’t- they don’t get it. The fairytale drama- it’s _insane_! And you know that it’s insane but it’s like they can’t even begin to _fathom_ why I’d think that,” she leans back against the cave wall. 

He feels selfish for his mind having gone to where it has- she’s worrying, and their son is _missing, for God’s sake,_ but he can’t stop himself from asking- “When we get back, then,” he doesn’t want to finish. He didn’t want to start saying it, but it came falling out.

She sighs and she looks up at him, “I’m trying. Just give me a little while longer, okay? And then… we can take it slow, alright?”

She’s conforming to his speech patterns, already. Since when does she say ‘alright’? She doesn’t. He does.

He nods, offering a reassuring smile- oh, how they’ve switched roles. “Alright. We’ll take it as slow as you want,” and he’s giving her that _look_. 

She wants to kiss him, but she knows that if she does that right now- while they’re in pain and feeding off of each other- she’s going to regret it. 

So, she rests her head back down on his shoulder and she wraps her arm around his back. He puts his arm around her, too, pulling her closer to him, and then he kisses her forehead.

That’ll have to be enough for now.

For now.


	14. younger now than we were before

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> neal ends up calling emma in the middle of the night. she is not pleased.

Emma wakes up to her phone going off.

She groans, still trying to catch up on sleep after coming back from the energy-deprivation fest, aka Neverland. She sits up in bed, turning to look at her clock ( _3:14, for the love of-_ ) before grabbing her phone off of the night stand. 

She looks at the screen- she’d been thinking that maybe she forgot to turn her alarm off, since she’d been planning to take tomorrow (now today) off. Now, though, she’s a little bit more confused, as it’s not ‘wake up’ flashing on her screen, but rather, Neal’s name.

She groans, climbing out of bed and wrapping a cardigan herself and she answers as she walks out to the fire escape. 

“Hello?” she grumbles, one arm wrapped around herself to keep warm.

It takes a minute before he answers, “Hey,” and she waits for him to say something else, but he doesn’t. 

She sighs, assuming that she’ll have to be the one to strike up conversation, “Is there a reason that you called me at this fine hour?”

She can hear the hesitation in the silence while she waits and she knows that there’s something _wrong._

“Well, yeah. I just had a nightmare and I wanted to make sure you were okay,” he explains- his voice is still hoarse and sleepy and- _crap_ , she forgot that he has nightmares. Actually, she didn’t _forget_ , but she’d figured that he’d grown out of them or something because he hasn’t talked about them at all. But, he never did then, either.

She immediately forces herself to act less tired, and nicer, while she’s correcting her attitude, “Oh, well, I’m fine. Are you okay? I can come over if you want me to,” and it’s not an offer out of wanting to leave home this late at night- or rather, this early in the morning- but more of an offer out of knowing how badly that can affect him and _heaven forbid_ he ended up getting hurt while he’s panicking. 

She can hear him shaking his head on the other end of the line, “No, it’s okay. It wasn’t even too bad, it just… I dunno, it felt real, and I wanted to check if you were alright. And Henry, too, but he’s with Regina, right?” 

She nods, “Yeah, but I’m sure he’s okay. I wouldn’t call her, though, she probably wouldn’t take too kindly to being woken up,” she laughs _thank god_ he does, too, “are you gonna try to go back to sleep soon?” 

She hears him sigh and she wants to just run over there and _sedate_ him because she knows him and she knows that he will do _anything_ to avoid having nightmares. Anything. 

“Yeah, probably. Normally, no, but I am _soo_ tired,” and she has to laugh at that, at least a little bit, because really, who isn’t after that really super fun adventure? 

“That’s good,” she says, trying to sound perky and happy despite the fact. 

She hears him nodding against the phone again and she smiles- _this guy still doesn’t know how to work them all the way_ , she thinks. 

“Well, that’s all. I think I’m gonna try to go back to sleep,” there’s a pause and she can feel in her _bones_ what’s coming next, “I guess I might see you tomorrow, then?” 

And for a second, she’s seventeen again, and she’s hopelessly in love this this guy and she doesn’t think that he’ll break her heart (at least, hopefully not again), and she nods against the phone just like he does, and, “Yeah, I’ll see you tomorrow,” as she signs away her last chance to back out of this _thing_ in good conscience. 

She can hear the breath of relief and she can see the smile in her head before he says, “Great. Okay, then. Bye, Em,” and _he called me that again._

And instead of saying anything close to showing how she feels on the inside, she closes her eyes, and she says, “Bye.”


	15. if you went away

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> emma and co. make a trip to zelena's farmhouse. takes place during 3x14, 'the tower'. i guess you can assume that canon would work after this, but really, do we want it to? (i wrote this with no intention of it working with canon and if you think of it doing so, it makes this about 1000x sadder, so how about we don't, 'kay?)
> 
> tw: kidnapping, hostage, cages, mention of hospitals

“Wait! It could be dangerous, we don’t know what’s down there,” Emma says, pulling her gun off her waistband. “Stay behind us, okay?”

Regina and Killian both roll their eyes, to which she looks to them and lowers her gun, stomping her foot, “Look, we don’t know what kind of protections she has on th-”

David puts his hand on her arm and shakes his head, looking over at her, “Not worth it.”

Regina looks over at Killian as if they’ve made a silent pact before turning back to Emma, “We’ll just wait up here. For backup,” she suggests and Emma nods in agreement, looking over at David, who’s broken the lock on the cellar door and opens it as she nods. 

She keeps her arm outstretched with the gun in front of her as she walks down the stairs to the cellar. She comes into view of a cage- and automatically fires once, a warning to the monkey- or whatever else- could be in there.

She slowly walks forwards, peering down as she walks forwards to see what’s in the cage- more importantly, if it looks like it could kill her. 

She steps back in shock a bit as she sees what’s- _who’s_ being held captive.

“Neal?” she whispers, staring into the cage in shock- she’d been expecting _anything_ else. Another witch, a flying monkey, his father… anything and anyone but Neal. 

He picks his head up from where it’s resting on his arms to look at her. “Emma?” he asks, still quiet and his voice raspy- almost like he’s been crying. It would make sense, as he’s more bloody and bruised than she’s ever seen him. 

She steps forwards, grabbing a very simple, homemade lock picking kit out of her pocket- her forgetfulness pays of sometimes, especially when she accidentally leaves stuff like this in her pockets- and she makes quick work of the lock, letting the door swing open while she walks over to him.

She hadn’t expected this to make her so… _emotional_. She’d expected for them to maybe catch up, _maybe_ to hug him, but definitely something a little calmer. Nothing too overwhelming.

Instead, she kneels in front of him and her eyes immediately tear up. “Hey,” she mumbles, lightly touching the deep cut on the side of his face- it’d scabbed over, but it’s clearly getting infected. 

He looks her in the eyes, giving her that _look_. The look that says ‘you’re my world’. She looks back at him and practically launches herself at him, holding onto him for dear life. 

And within seconds, they’re both crying. She can feel him trying not to make any sounds; trying not to shake. She’s doing the same, holding back as much as she can. But, _god_ , she missed him. She missed him more than anything- even if she couldn’t really remember him. At least, not in a good way. Not like now. 

It feels like it’s been an hour- well, maybe not an hour, but at least a really long time- before she feels someone tapping on her shoulder and she pulls away, only to look up and see David. “Sorry, honey, but we have to go,” he whispers, and she nods, leaning back all the way and standing.

Neal stays where he is, but his eyes follow her as she stands and she looks down at him, tilting her head in confusion. “Are you coming?” she asks, looking down at him and she can see his breathing speed up as she watches him. 

He looks away from her then, and she looks over at David, who just looks back at Neal. She squats down, reaching over to take his hand, “Neal,” she gets his attention before starting to talk again, “we’ve got to go. Come on,” she whispers, standing and continuing to hold his hand to help him up.

They get out to the outside of the cellar and David pulls the car around- neither him or Emma is sure the state that Neal’s in, but they’re sure that Whale at least needs to check him out- regardless, he doesn’t have the energy to walk all the way across the field to the car.

While they wait, Neal turns to Emma, “So, what now?”

She shrugs, looking at the car as it approaches, “We wait for Henry to get his memories back, and then once that happens we can all stop living at Granny’s and find a legit place to live, hopefully,” she turns to face him, and he’s smiling so big she thinks his face might crack in half, “What?”

He shakes his head, still smiling, “Looks like you’re planting some roots, huh?” 

She rolls her eyes and bumps into him- gently, though. She still isn’t sure how badly he’s hurt- more importantly, where- and she doesn’t want to upset it more. “You’re not gonna mention how I just suggested living together?” 

His eyes nearly pop out of his head.

“Wait, you did?!”


	16. right where we should be

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> snow helps emma get ready for her date with neal

Emma stands, staring into her closet in contempt, looking into her closet- as she has been on and off for the past thirty minutes. She’s not usually the type to put much thought into this kind of thing- usually she’d just find something and throw it on, but really, this is Neal. 

And even though he probably couldn’t care less about what she’s wearing, she’d like to look somewhat decent- in a different way than she usually does, too. So, rather than continue looking, she’d already taken a ‘check the pantry and find nothing’ break, a bathroom break, and an actual snack break. Because really, what are you supposed to wear to a lunch date with the man who acts as your best friend, son’s father, _and_ possible boyfriend?

You might as well just not try. 

Which she’s debating doing when her mother shows up in her doorway, looking very concerned, “Honey? What’s going on?” she asks, walking up to her and putting her hand on her shoulder.

She doesn’t say anything. Vocalizing her problem is a more embarrassing than her actual problem, so she just gestures to the closet and turns around, going to sit on the bed. 

“Ah, you can’t find anything to wear,” Snow assumes, walking up to the closet and going through all of the shirts and all of the jeans, along with some shorts and tank tops for the summertime.

She goes through almost everything before she notices the dresses shoved against the back wall on hangers, she makes a gap in the clothes before them, separating out the dresses from the rest of the clothes before pulling them all out.

Emma notices what she’s found, and what she’s _doing_ , just a second too late, “Oh, mom, no,” she groans, watching as Snow flops all the dresses on the bed beside her. 

Her mother just shakes her head, smiling from ear to ear as she picks up the dresses one by one, going through them, “These are all beautiful, Emma,” she looks up at her once she’s done, still grinning, “Why don’t you wear one of these?” 

Emma glances over at them, shrugging, “They’re all so _old_ , I mean, I’m sure he’s probably seen me in at least half of those, and I haven’t worn them in so long- at least since Henry found me, probably before then- I mean, a lot of those are from _when I knew Neal_ , so you can imagine,” she shrugs, glaring at the pile, “and if they’re from before Henry was born, I’m not even sure if they still fit,” she protests. 

Snow grabs a random one- one with _sunflowers_ on it, and hands it to her, “At least try it on? Please?” Emma takes it hastily, groaning the entire way to the bathroom door, leaving Snow standing there smiling like she hasn’t in years.

As Emma’s in the bathroom, Snow goes through the other clothes in her closet- clearly, she’s not all for the idea of wearing a dress- and finds a nice cute outfit that she’s almost certain will be a little more ‘Emma’. Cute shirt, ripped jeans, and she manages to find a pair of shoes that aren’t boots somewhere in there that match. 

And as she’s yanking that new/old pair of shoes from behind everything else in the closet, she hears the bathroom door slam and Emma come stomping out- in true Emma fashion. Lo and behold, it fits, and she managed to not implode upon herself while trying it on- even if she looks like she’s about to any second now.

She doesn’t say anything and instead just stands and admires her daughter, while she stands like a child who’s just been told ‘no’. “I don’t like it.” 

Snow can’t help but laugh a little at that, “That’s a little obvious, baby,” she explains, stepping forwards, adjusting the straps on the dress, “But, you do look _very_ cute in it,” she defends, stepping back and looking her up and down. 

“Do you want to try a different one, or put on the outfit that I found that has no dress involved?” 

Emma nods, looking extremely desperate- it’s almost pitiful, “Yes, please,” she quickly says, following her mother as she turns around, walking back over to the bed and fiddling with the shirt. 

“Okay, so, I thought this was a little less… frilly, as one may put it, and I figured you’d like it a little more? Especially since it has multiple parts,” she explains.

Emma nods, picking up her jeans and shirt off of the bed, “Definitely more my speed. I’ll go change,” she says, rushing off to the bathroom, much quicker than she did when she was practically being forced into that dress.

Snow takes the time that she’s in the bathroom as an opportunity to put all the dresses back, making silent notes-to-self which ones she’s going to come and borrow later on- besides, Emma probably won’t mind, since the mere thought of putting those dresses on seemed to be enough to make her gag.

She doesn’t even hear Emma come in this time, she’s so busy admiring a red, plaid dress that she’d found. She knows she probably wouldn’t be able to pull it off, but _Emma…_

“I was wearing that one when I met him,” she hears, nearly jumping out of her skin, “it’s one of my favorite ones. Probably the only one I’d consider wearing voluntarily now,” she walks over to the closet, reaching back into a part that seemed to be flooded with jackets, jackets, and more jackets. “I usually liked to match it up with this, since there’s a hole in the back.” 

Snow hadn’t even noticed the hole, but even knowing that it’s there now, she doesn’t mind it. It even adds character, in her opinion. 

Upon looking at the clock, Emma stands up taller, visibly shocked, “I gotta go,” she says, and Snow looks up at her, concerned.

“You’re not going to go? But you-” 

Emma steps forward, giving her a hug, “I _am_ gonna go, I’m _late_ , mom,” she explains.

Snow turns to look at the clock, her eyes widening just a bit, “Oh, go! Have fun!” she calls, as Emma lets go of her and rushes down the hallway. “Love you!” 

“Love you, too!” she hears, as the door slams.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> let me know if you want to see what happens on the date! i'm about to start working on the backstory for the sunflower dress, because, really, who doesn't love Fluffy Tallhassee AUs?
> 
> (you could also, i guesss, take this as what happens before the first story on here, but i'd like to think that she drags herself there XD)


	17. how'd you look so perfect?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> sunflower dress backstory! comes before the last chapter, but you don't need to have read it to understand. 
> 
> that's all the summary you're getting, there's no good way to explain without spoiling it :)

“These are cute,” Emma says, picking up a pair of shoes and holding them out for Neal to look at- Neal who’d zoned out twenty minutes ago as his input was no longer relevant- it may have been _required_ , for some reason, but it was certainly not actually taken into consideration. Which is why he’d stopped responding.

He snaps out of it, looking up and nodding, watching as Emma breaks into a smile and puts them back, “Come on, which ones do you like?” she asks, standing back and looking at the wall of shoes, crossing her arms over her chest while weighing her options.

He shakes his head, looking up at her, “I’ve already said it, like, four times, Em. I like the blue ones that you tried on a while ago,” he explains, standing from where he’s sitting on the designated ‘trying shoes on’ bench and stepping forward to wrap his arms around her waist. He rests his head on her shoulder, “I love you, but this should _not_ be this hard,” he whispers, letting go of her and stepping backward.

She turns around to look at him, fairly upset that he’s not standing and engaging in the staring, “Where are you going?” she groans, grabbing his hand.

He shakes his head, “I need a break, we’re gonna be here forever,” he explains, letting go of her hand, starting to walk off. She starts to follow him, grabbing his hand again, “No, _you_ are on shoes duty,” he protests and she shakes her head, looking back at the racks.

“I can’t decide, though! _Please_ ,” she begs and he shakes his head, sighing and wrapping his arm around her, “thank you.”

They begin to wander when Emma stops, pulling away from Neal, rushing over to a dress she’s found on a rack- one labeled with the prices, which are definitely _not_ in their price range. “Em, there is no way we’ll be able to afford that _and_ shoes, and you’re the one who came up with the rule,” he gives her a pointed look as she stands, the dress in pressed against her front as if she’s trying it on.

She shakes her head, pulling it away from her and looking it up and down again- he can see what she likes about it- there are sunflowers all over it- it would match her _hair_ , for the love of god, “I’ll at least try it on,” she walks towards the dividers in the middle- the hall of changing rooms, where he’s told to wait outside.

He starts thinking of the exit strategy, because if he knows his girl, which he’d like to think he does, he knows that she’s not going to want to leave without that dress if it looks even half decent on her- despite her ‘no ripping off Old Navy’ rule. 

And just when he thinks he’s almost got it completely planned out, she opens the door and he can’t help but lose his train of thought, because _she looks beautiful_. Not her normal beautiful, because she does always look beautiful, but the special kind of beautiful where you can tell that she’s not trying too hard, but based on the look on her face, you’d almost think otherwise.

He must be frozen for a second because she comes out of the room completely and asks, “Do you like it?” 

It takes him a second to snap out of it and nod, looking her in the eyes, “Yeah,” he takes a deep breath, “You- you look _perfect _, Em,” he confirms.__

__She just smiles- she’s not sure if anyone’s ever said that about her before- “Thank you,” she shrugs her shoulders up a little bit- nervous habit- and looks down at the dress. “So, you think it’s worth it?” she asks._ _

__It’s then when he knows that his face must’ve made an impression on her, because never, not even once, has she mentioned considering the possibility of breaking the rule. She _loves_ this place- he knows it’d probably break her heart to have to do that, so he shakes his head, “If you think so- I’m sure we could come back, if not,” he suggests._ _

__She nods, looking back down at the dress, “Yeah, probably. I’ll wait,” she decides and he nods- he can’t say that he’s not just a little disappointed, because he’s not sure that he’s seen her look so confident in anything _ever_ , but he’s also sure that she’d probably cry over breaking that rule later tonight if she did it._ _

__So, she goes back into the dressing room, returns the dress to the worker hanging stuff up, and walks right back to look at the shoes once again._ _

__\-------------------------------------------_ _

__A week later, Neal comes back to the car after a day that’s busy for both of them. Emma had already been to the library, and Neal had been doing some job- mowing a lawn or raking someone’s leaves or something._ _

__He opens the passenger side door, sliding in and taking her hand, “Cover your eyes,” he commands, and she looks at him in confusion before deciding to do what he’s asked._ _

__He pulls out whatever it is from a bag- _Dear God, what has he done?_ \- “You can open them,” he tells her, and she does, only to find him holding the sunflower dress from the week before. _ _

__Her face immediately lights up and she lunges across the seats, throwing herself at him, “Thank you!” she says, quite loudly, into his ear, “Wait, you didn’t-?” she asks, but he cuts her off._ _

__“Nah, if I wanted to do that I would’ve just done it on Tuesday- here,” he yanks the receipt out of the bag, showing her- or at least trying to._ _

__She shakes her head, “It’s okay, I believe you,” she laughs, smoothing the fabric of the dress out on her lap, “Thank you!” she says again, leaning over the center console to hug him again._ _

__He can’t help but smile as he hugs her back, running his hands through her hair, “You’re welcome,” he says back, chuckling a little bit as she hugs him a little tighter, “I love you,” he tells her, leaning back to kiss her._ _

__“I love you, too.”_ _


	18. it's a quarter past midnight

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> emma calls neal super late because she can't sleep. this is short and named after a song off of bastille's new album, because i'm in love, okay? 
> 
> i'm debating a part two, so maybe that'll happen in the near future :)

Neal puts his book down, hearing his phone ringing in the other room. He hadn’t thought anybody would still be up this late, unless it’s an emergency, seeing as they’ve been sleep deprived for the past few weeks, and the only reason he’s awake is because they’ve just escaped his very own personal nightmare island and he’d like to not relive it just yet.

He stands, following the noise until he’s clearly in the same room as it, and then he just has to figure out where in the sheets he’d thrown it when he’d taken it off of the charger. It’s not like it’s useful for anything besides texting and taking calls- he really needs an upgrade, despite not wanting a smartphone. 

Once he finds it, he picks up the phone to find Emma’s name flashing across the screen. He doesn’t hesitate to answer it- he knows that Henry’d gone home with Regina (she’d been pretty upset about it, as far as he could tell), but he had no way of knowing that she wasn’t calling to tell him that something’s wrong with their kid. 

She greets him first, becoming silent after just saying, “Hey,” and his interest is piqued from there. 

“Hey, what’s up?” he asks, walking back into the room that he’d been in, putting the phone on speaker and setting it down on the table so that he’d be able to take out the newspaper- he’d forgotten until now that he needs to look at the classifieds for apartment openings, he might as well do it while he still remembers. 

She’s quiet for a second before she starts talking, “Well, I just wanted to check on you, make sure you’re okay, all that good stuff. I know that wasn’t exactly anybody’s idea of a good time, but it seems like it might’ve been a little more… _traumatic_ for you,” she explains and he takes just a second to think about this amazing, beautiful human being and what he _possibly_ did to deserve this. 

“Oh, well, thanks! I’m okay, for the most part, I’m just looking at apartments right now in the newspaper,” he explains, flipping a page.

She doesn’t seem to take note of the whole ‘looking at apartments’ part, “For the most part? What’s wrong?” she asks.

As he’s said before, the woman doesn’t stop until she finds what she’s looking for, “Noth- I’m just having a hard time _wanting_ to go to bed, is all,” he explains, chuckling as quiet as he can- he prays to god she didn’t hear him puff the air out of his nose.

He hears a ruffling against the phone- he’s sure that she’s nodding against the phone, as she does, “Yeah, me too, I guess. I mean, I’m exhausted, don’t get me wrong, but it’s like… I don’t know, it’s like I know I’ll just lay there if I try to sleep now,” she explains and he puts the newspaper down- it’s time to focus on her now, on what’s bothering her so much.

He doesn’t want to upset her by asking too many questions, which is bound to make conversation from this point on _oh-so-easy_ , “Is it because Henry’s with Regina, or is it just the trauma of having been on that demon-run island?” 

He waits, and doesn’t expect to get a response until he does, “Well, mostly ‘cause Henry’s with Regina, and before you say anything,” he’d already started to interrupt and tell her that he’d be fine with his mom for a night, “I know he’s safe, it’s just… he’s not here. It’s weird,” she finishes.

He tries to offset the sadness- the fear that she has, “Are you lonely, Em?” he teases and he hears her laugh a little bit.

“Yes,” she whines.

He waits a second, trying to come up with a way to invite her over without freaking her out, “Well, me too. You could come over- or I could come over there, whatever,” he pauses, and she doesn’t say anything, “I have ice cream.”

He can hear her start moving around and he can only hope that she’s not panicking ( _if she is, at least he tried his best_ ) and wait for her to say something.

“I’ll be there in ten minutes?” she waits to confirm and he hears the movement on the other end cease for a minute.

He nods, smiling from ear to ear because _finally_ , he’s found a way to at least be able to talk to her without her moaning and groaning about how she doesn’t want to talk to him ( _who can blame her, anyway, after what he’d done to her?_ ) and it’s the best feeling in the world because at least they can be friends. 

Finally, they can be friends.


	19. can you keep me close, can you love me?

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> it's the night after neal almost dies, and emma is an overwhelmed mess. fix-it for quiet minds

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I don't really love this haha rereading is NEVER A GOOD IDEA I PROMISE ANYONE QUESTIONING IT.

Emma wakes up, feeling the bed next to her- more importantly, not feeling Neal, who’s supposed to be next to her after she deliberately told him earlier that night that he was not to run off for any reason whatsoever or she’d call Regina to give him a talking to- or worse, she’d tell her _mother._

He’d agreed- having had the fear of God put into him more than once in less than twenty-four hours will usually inspire one to do something like that.

Now, she’s not so sure that he actually believed her. He should’ve. She will.

She immediately throws the blankets off of herself, speed-walking across the upstairs portion of the apartment to go and see if he’s downstairs- she should probably be more pissed than scared, but she can’t help but be afraid that someone hurt him, or even took him. 

She’s not looking in front of her, but instead at the ground, when she runs straight into something (someone). She steps back, not having fallen, and blinks a few times, a little dizzy after that encounter. 

“Hey, you okay?” 

She hasn’t noticed any cause for someone to think that she _isn’t_ okay, but now, she’s noticing that she’s breathing fast and heavy and she’s sweating just a little and she can’t tell if she’s been crying or not. 

 

She nods, avoiding eye contact, even though she can feel that he’s watching her. He steps forward, putting his hand on her arm, and she starts tearing up.

He pulls her to him and she quickly attaches herself to him, hiding her face in his shoulder, “I woke up and you were gone, and I- I thought something happened,” she’s stuttering over her words, clinging to him like there’s no tomorrow, and she’s given up trying to keep herself together.

Now, he’s only ever seen this side of her a handful of time- usually, it was fixable with a couple minutes of cuddle time and a promise for ice cream. But, that was then. This is now, after years of heartbreak and misery and loneliness and he’s almost a hundred percent sure that ice cream won’t fix it. 

At least, not entirely. 

However, cuddles might. 

He’s not in the mood to try to get her back to bed- he knows her too well, and she’s not going back to sleep until she’s absolutely certain that nothing is happening within the next- what, six hours?- so that she can go back to sleep.

Instead, he just stands and he keeps rubbing her back and remembers how terrified she looked earlier in the woods. How that feeling is going to stick with her for the rest of the night, probably the rest of the week, possibly the rest of the month. How that look on her face is going to stick with him for longer.

He squeezes her extra tight when he thinks about what would’ve happened if he’d actually died, if she hadn’t thought to just kiss him. How she’d have to come home and tell her parents, how she’d have to keep it from Henry, of all people, seemed to be her number one confidant at the moment. 

He does that, and suddenly (maybe he’s been stuck in his head... maybe it’s not so sudden) she’s hyperventilating and her hold on him’s getting weaker, “Emma, breathe,” he pulls himself completely out of his head, out of the memories from earlier, and he loosens his hold on her just enough to lead her back to her room.

He sits her down on the edge of her bed and he squats down in front of her and takes her hands, “Hey,” he squeezes her hands, “Em, look at me.”

He’s not convinced she’ll listen- she doesn’t always want to be taken care of, especially when she needs it,- but she does. 

Her eyes are dancing between him and something behind them, but she’s looking at him at least a little bit, “Everything’s okay, alright?” she shakes her head just faintly enough for him to be able to know what she’s doing, “It is. Now, in general, you’re right, it is absolute chaos, okay? There’s a witch running around casting spells and throwing fireballs, we can’t remember anything from the past year, and Henry’s still oblivious, but _right now_ , as we speak, none of that matters. Not even a little. That’s all out there,” he gestures outside the window and she chuckles just a little bit, just enough for him to feel okay about smiling.

He takes her hand back and squeezes it, “We’re okay. And I know it didn’t seem like we even _possibly_ could be earlier, but we are. We’re okay,” she nods- she seems to be doing better now, she’s not breathing as heavy as before, she seems like she might’ve calmed down some- and he feels just a little bit proud that his hope speech might have done her some good. 

He sits and he avoids eye contact while she calms down completely. He’s still holding both of her hands, rubbing his thumbs over her knuckles in sync with the breaths she’s taking, trying to help her feel a little safer. 

Once she’s calmed down and they’re just sitting there, she looks at Neal, “We have ice cream,” she suggests and he smiles, standing and taking both of her hands to help her up. 

He deliberately walks behind her on the stairs, still not completely trusting that her legs are capable of supporting her- usually, she’s still a little weak after this kind of thing (he thinks it’s normal, it’s happened to him, too) and he doesn’t want her to fall, especially on the _metal stairs._

They get to the kitchen and she walks over to the freezer, when he takes her by the shoulders and leads her to the counter to sit, “I’ll do it, please sit down,” he tries to be quiet, minding her parents who have already gone to sleep in the other room. 

She starts to protest, but gives in when he puts on his ‘i’m serious’ face.

About twenty minutes later, they’ve made their way back upstairs and they sit on the bed, just being quiet, Neal’s hand on Emma’s. “I’m really sorry,” she mumbles and he looks up at her, squinting and tilting his head.

“For what? You didn’t do anything wrong.”

“I just- I needed help,” she explains, plopping back against the bed.

“Em. It’s okay to need help. I’m glad I was able to help. Please don’t feel bad, okay? You’re doing better now, that’s all that matters. And, I got ice cream, too, so…” She nods, watching as he scoots back and leans against the bed with her. “So, bedtime?” he asks, taking her hand.

She nods, looking over at him, “As long as you’ll be here in the morning,” she asks, squeezing his hand and looking at him, waiting for him to respond.

He pulls his hand away and puts out his pinky, “Promise.”

She laughs at him, taking his pinky with hers and shaking on it before setting up to go to bed.


	20. somewhere only we know

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> neal and emma's second first date.

“Hey,” Neal opens the door and immediately is taken aback- literally, steps back, just taking everything in. He must’ve gone into a trance, because the next thing he knows is Emma is waving her hand in front of his face to get his attention.

“You okay?” she laughs, putting her hand back down. 

He blinks a few times, nodding and smiling, “Yeah, I’m great,” he assures. Neither of them know what to say for a second, when they do, he starts the conversation again, “You ready?”

“I’m here, aren’t I?” 

“Touche,” he steps out into the hallway, shrugging his coat on and closing the door behind him, “So, you don’t have to be back by a certain time, right?” he asks, trying to think of _something_ to say- granted, that probably wasn’t the best thing he could’ve thought of. 

He looks over to her and finds her _clearly_ trying not to laugh at him, “I’m not fifteen, Neal,” he sighs exasperatedly- she could at least try to be nice about it- clearly, it was a mistake, “No, I don’t have to be home by a certain time,” she confirms.

They start walking- it takes them time for either of them to be comfortable to do or say anything, but this time it’s her who makes a move. She takes his hand, risking her dignity entirely, _praying_ that he wouldn’t be upset. Part of her wanted to close her eyes, just to not have to be _looking_ during the train wreck.

He pauses for a second, looking over at her, and she opens her eyes just a little bit to find him smiling ( _thank god_ ), and then she opens her eyes completely. 

“So, I have a little bit of a surprise- nothing _bad_ , but you’ll find out after dinner,” he explains, “I promise you’ll like it,” he assures when he sees her reluctant expression.

“Okay,” she mumbles.  
\---------------------------------  
“So, we still have a surprise to see, too,” Neal mentions.

Emma nods, “Right! I forgot,” she laughs, “sorry.”

He shakes his head, “Nah, it’s fine. I did my job, then. Wanna go?” 

She did.

So, they stand, and he walks over to take her hand as he leads her all the way back to his apartment, all the way back to where his truck is parked behind it.

They stop beside it and Emma looks over at him, “Your surprise is your car?” 

“No, my surprise is that I’m taking you someplace else _in_ the car- actually, it’s what we’re doing when we get there,” he takes his keys from his pocket, unlocking the car.

It’s a somewhat normal car ride- there are pauses in the conversation, as there have been the whole night, but neither of them had expected it to be awkward-free. Emma picked the music, Neal drove, and eventually, they stopped.

“Neal, why are we in the woods?” 

“It’s a surprise.”

“Usually murder is.”

“The surprise has nothing to do with violence, how about that? Now, just stay here for a minute, okay?” 

“Okay.”

Thankfully, she agreed. He had thought of her deciding that she didn’t _want_ to wait in the car- she probably still isn’t thrilled about it, but it’s supposed to be a surprise, and it wouldn’t be if she saw what was happening before she was supposed to. All he can hope is that she doesn’t get out of the car before he tells her to.

She doesn’t. 

Instead, she looks back in the rearview mirror and sees him uncovering the bed of the truck, and all she can wonder is _what in the hell?_

Now, she’s not sure she should believe that the surprise isn’t murder. 

Actually, she’s almost half sure that it is.

So, she sits and waits, wishing that he’d hurry up so she didn’t need to sit and worry about _death_ , of all things, any longer.

She’s in her head when he comes around to the side of the car and opens the door. “Oh my god!” she gasps, covering her face, and when she turns to look at him, he’s doubled over laughing. “It’s not funny!” she cries, even though, she’s fighting laughter, too.

“It’s a little funny,” he takes her hand and they walk to the back of the truck, where he _may_ have set up the most fun surprise she’s ever seen.

Blankets, pillows, and probably other things that she hasn’t taken in yet, along with _Christmas lights_. He set up _Christmas lights._

She stands in absolute shock- she’s kind of glad, she really was half expecting death- until he says, “Say something?” 

“Wow. I- wait, what _are_ we doing?” 

“Watching Netflix, clearly,” he laughs, grabbing his computer (she’ll have to talk to him about being more careful with his electronics) and showing her the screen, “I thought you’d like it. No parents around to bother us, no bad guys…”

“I do! It looks fun,” she assures, still looking ahead at the truck.

“Why do you still look surprised, then?” 

“Because I _am_ , I mean- this is way more of a ‘you’ thing than dinner for a first date,” she explains, “I mean, dinner was fun! I just- our _last_ first date was hot cocoa on carnival swings that we _broke in to_ , I’m sure you can imagine I’d be surprised if you could keep the extra creative stuff out of it,” she tries to be nice and not say anything that could be misinterpreted.

“I was expecting you to say something sooner! Apparently, you’ve paid more attention than I thought,” he says, stepping forwards and climbing up into the truck, helping her up, afterward. “Well, I’m glad that you know me well,” he chuckles, moving to the back of the truck to sit.

She follows him, grabbing his wrist and moving his arm around her shoulders, “Me, too.”

(Then, per Emma’s request, they watched Friends… for ten minutes, before it was decided that they both like Brooklyn Nine-Nine better, and switched to Emma’s account to watch that instead).


End file.
